The Martins Of Cro' Martin, Vol. I (of II)

The narrative follows the fortunes of a gentry family at a windswept coastal estate and the assorted neighbors and visitors who orbit it. Through domestic scenes, dinner-parties, auctions, and an election campaign it traces romantic entanglements, legal disputes, financial reversals, and artistic pursuits. An attorney, an artist, a barrister, and ambitious younger men drive a series of comic and poignant episodes that reveal social manners and personal weaknesses. Shifts in fortune and generous impulses alter relationships and standing within the community, culminating in communal gatherings and moral reckonings that knit together the novel’s varied episodes.